Heathcote CFA fake jailed

A HEATHCOTE man arrested for impersonating a CFA officer is a registered sex offender who repeatedly breached reporting conditions, a court has heard.

Mitchell Caleb Dwyer, 23, failed to inform police that he flew to Western Australia for one month before returning to “help fight bushfires” in Gippsland in January.

Dwyer was dressed in CFA uniform at the time and carried a kit-bag full of equipment as he attempted to board a fire truck at the Maffra CFA brigade, near Sale, on January 19.

Inquiries made by the local divisional commander revealed Dwyer was not a member of the CFA and that he was well-known to police in central Victoria for a history of “obsessions with fire”, the Bendigo Magistrates Court heard.

He was arrested at Bendigo train station on January 24 over a string of charges, including impersonating a CFA officer and failing to comply with his sex offender registry conditions.

Dwyer was listed on the sex offender registry for life after pleading guilty to an indecent act with a child under 16-years-old in 2011.

Appearing in court yesterday, Dwyer was remanded in custody and given a five-month jail sentence, with two months already served. He received an aggregate fine of $1000.

The court heard he had a long history of fraudulent attempts to join CFA crews, including arriving at Wesburn fire brigade in December 2012 in a bid to respond to a shed fire.